Green Tips: Low-Impact Habits for Home, Yard, Trail and River

Environmental advice tends to come in two sizes: too big to act on and too small to matter. The habits below sit in between. They're things we do ourselves, mostly cheap and mostly simple, with honest notes on what they cost and where they fall short. Pick the few that fit your life and keep at them; a handful of habits kept for years beats a long list abandoned by March.

Home

• Seal the leaks before buying gadgets. Caulk, weatherstripping and attic air sealing are dull and inexpensive, and they usually do more for comfort and energy bills than a smart thermostat. The trade-off is a weekend in a dusty attic. Many utilities offer home energy assessments, so ask yours what's available before you spend money on equipment.
• Go easy on setbacks with a heat pump. A big overnight setback can make a heat pump lean on its backup electric heat to catch up in the morning, which eats the savings. Small, steady adjustments usually work better. We wrote more about heat pumps in cold mountain valleys.
• Turn the water heater down. The U.S. Department of Energy suggests 120°F for most households, which saves energy and lowers the risk of scalds. If anyone at home has a weakened immune system, ask a doctor first, since hotter water holds back some bacteria.
• Wash cold, dry on a line. Heating water accounts for most of the energy a washing machine uses, and modern detergents handle cold water fine. Line drying is free but slow, and towels come out stiff; a few minutes in the dryer afterward softens them.
• Keep what you have. The greenest appliance is often the one already in your kitchen, since making a new one has its own footprint. The exception is the very old fridge or chest freezer humming in the garage, which may be worth replacing or simply unplugging.
• Recycle less, but better. Rules differ from town to town, and "wishcycling", tossing in anything that might be recyclable, contaminates whole loads. Plastic bags tangle sorting machinery, so take them back to stores that collect them. Here's where your recycling actually goes.
• Cut food waste first, then compost. Planning meals and using the freezer saves money and keeps food out of landfills, where it rots into methane. What's left can go into a backyard compost pile that doesn't smell.

Yard and garden

• Shrink the lawn you don't use. Turn the strip nobody walks on into native shrubs, perennials or a patch of meadow. Native plants feed far more caterpillars, and so far more birds, than most ornamental imports. Be honest with yourself about the work: new beds need weeding for the first couple of seasons, and a crisp edge or a mown path helps the neighbors read "garden" rather than "neglect".
• Mow high and leave the clippings. Taller grass shades out weeds and holds moisture, and clippings return nitrogen to the soil as they break down.
• Test before you fertilize. A soil test through your state's university extension service tells you what your soil actually lacks. Extra nitrogen and phosphorus wash off in the next storm and feed algae downstream. Never fertilize just before heavy rain.
• Catch the rain. A rain barrel holds less than you'd think, so pair it with a rain garden in a low spot that soaks up roof runoff. Screen barrels against mosquitoes, and check local rules before you start, since a few western states regulate collecting rainwater.
• Skip the mosquito barrier sprays. Most yard-wide sprays kill bees, fireflies and butterflies along with the mosquitoes. Dumping standing water once a week, from flowerpot saucers to clogged gutters, does more and costs nothing.
• Pull a few invasives. Callery pear, burning bush, Japanese barberry and English ivy are still sold in places and spread into nearby woods. Replacing them is real work, so start with one plant a season.
• Dim the yard at night. Shielded, warm-colored, motion-triggered lights save power and are kinder to fireflies, moths and migrating birds.
• Leave some leaves. Rake them into beds rather than bagging them; the November entries in our field almanac explain who's living in there.

On the trail

• Walk through the mud, not around it. Stepping around puddles widens trails and tramples the plants at the edge. Wear boots that can take it, or pick drier trails in mud season.
• Pack out everything, including the orange peel. Fruit peels and nutshells break down slowly in cool forests, and food scraps teach animals to hang around trails and campsites.
• Follow the cathole rule. Where there's no toilet, the standard Leave No Trace guidance is a hole six to eight inches deep, at least 200 feet (about 70 adult steps) from water, trails and camp. Pack out toilet paper in a zip bag; it's unpleasant for about a minute.
• Buy firewood where you burn it. Logs carried from home can hide tree-killing pests such as the emerald ash borer. Use existing fire rings, keep fires small, and check for fire restrictions before you strike a match.
• Brush your boots. Seeds of invasive plants travel in tread mud from one trailhead to the next. A stiff brush kept in the car takes half a minute.
• Give wildlife room. If an animal changes what it's doing because of you, you're too close. Keep dogs leashed, especially in nesting season.
• Share the drive. On most day hikes, getting to the trailhead is the biggest part of the outing's footprint. Carpool, or choose closer trails more often; there's probably a good one you've been overlooking.

On the water

• Clean, drain, dry. Before moving a boat, waders or gear between waters, pull off plants and mud, drain every compartment, and let everything dry completely. Zebra mussels, didymo and other invaders hitchhike this way. Felt-soled waders are hard to clean, which is why several states restrict them.
• Don't build rock dams or stacks in streams. Moving rocks wrecks shelter for stream insects, crayfish, salamanders and fish eggs. The big flat rocks in a hellbender stream are especially worth leaving alone.
• Keep soap out of the water. Even biodegradable soap harms aquatic life when it goes straight into a stream. Wash dishes and yourself well away from the water and scatter the gray water on soil.
• Pick up fishing line. Tangled monofilament snares birds and turtles long after it's lost. Consider lead-free sinkers and jigs, since lead tackle swallowed by loons and other waterbirds can poison them. The alternatives cost more, which is the honest trade-off.
• Cover up instead of slathering on. Evidence on sunscreen in rivers and lakes is thin compared with coral reefs, but long sleeves, a hat and a neck gaiter mean less lotion washing off and less to buy.
• Land where others land. Use existing put-ins and gravel bars rather than scrambling up a vegetated bank, which crumbles quickly under boots and boats.

In the community

• Remember that storm drains go to streams. In most places, what runs into a street drain reaches a creek without treatment. Pick up after the dog, sweep grass clippings off the pavement, and wash the car on the lawn or at a car wash that handles its wastewater.
• Join a cleanup or a monitoring group. River cleanups are a good start; volunteer stream monitoring goes further and teaches you to read your creek. Our beginner's guide explains how it works.
• Borrow instead of buying. Tool libraries, repair cafés and neighborhood swap groups keep rarely used things in circulation. A pole saw you need once a year doesn't need to live in your garage.
• Turn up for the practical work. Tree plantings, trail workdays and school garden weekends need hands more than opinions, and a morning with a shovel along a creek bank will teach you more about your watershed than a month of reading about it.